race fans and flea markets...

Oh Daytona..... we arrived on Wednesday night, very hungry and excited to be in warm weather!

Thursday was a maintenance day for us.  So we had to go shopping for things we need and review important information that we learned during training week.  Lauren, our coordinator met us in Daytona to help us get started and guide us along for the first few events.

We actually didn't set up our event site in Daytona.  We were originally supposed to be at the Budweiser Shootout.  But it didn't work out, so on Friday we did guerilla marketing.  This is when we find a location with a good number of people and we talk to them about our products and services.

We decided to go to the race track, where fans were hanging around and we also went to a Flea Market nearby.

haha... this was a rack of t-shirts at the Flea Market... not 'On Sale,' not just 'Cheap'- these shirts are 'Damn Cheap'- love it!

These are some guys that we spoke to at the Flea Market.  They like to call themselves 'Nascarnies' because they travel from race to race!

Our sweet ride!

Verizon Wireless.. what, what!!

This is us talking to some people at the race track.

It is, of course intimidating to go up to strangers and talk to them about Verizon Wireless.  But once you get past the pain of rejection it becomes much easier :)

It would have been nice to have a tent set up at the Budweiser Shootout but it just didn't work out.  So Veal- you don't really have anything to be jealous of... we didn't actually get to do much with the race!  :)  But I did think about you and your NASCAR love while I was in Daytona!

It was a good time but gotta keep it movin'... now onto Miami!!

home sweet home

So on Tuesday I was able to spend the night at home with my parents!  We went out to dinner at Ippolito's (one of my favorites)!  It was great to get to see my parents already.  

Before my trip I had some luggage dilemmas.  Of course I wanted to get really cute luggage but it also needed to be functional.  So I found the cutest set at TJ Maxx.  

But after one week of two (incredibly cute) rolling bags I quickly realized that two bags plus a rolling case for our phones and two laptops was a bit excessive to be carrying around everywhere. So while at home I dropped off my small suitcase and traded it out for a duffle bag (thank you Bartz).

While at home I may have squeezed a little bit more into my suitcase :)  It was already packed pretty tight but now there is seriously no extra space!  And I know that I am going to go shopping soon... not quite sure where I'll fit any purchases.  I'll just have to make it work.

Also I noticed that that I only packed black, white and grey.  I am being dead honest.... the ONLY colored shirt I brought is a teal Georgia College shirt!!  haha... I thought it would be easier to dress my clothes up with a fun scarf or cute jewelry!  

Lastly I want to give a shout out to Rachel for keeping me company as I squeezed my clothes in my suitcase!!  :)

say cheeeese!

So, yeah... Wisconsin... pretty much what I pictured it to be... not much happenin'

Luckily we have an awesome group so no matter where we are we have fun together!



We got to Wisconsin on Thursday night and went out to dinner at B-dubs (Buffalo Wild Wings). We didn't really do anything else. But I love the group that I am training with... everyone is so fun to hang out with!

Friday::
We had a lot of training to still go over. The reason we went to Wisconsin was to have our vehicle training and learn to set up our event sites.



So pretty much all day we spent learning to hook up our trailer and other driving pointers. For dinner we went out to eat in smaller groups. I went with my partner, Matt, our coordinator and the northeast team. We had sushi and it was sooo good!

Nothing too exciting... sorry for the boring play by play!

Saturday::
Nope, still not a day off! We had more driver training and worked a lot with our event site.

Then on Saturday night we went to watch the UFC match at Champps... I have officially decided that I don't really like fighting! I just couldn't get into it and it made me kinda sad to watch people get hurt that bad!

Then we just went back to the 'ol holiday inn express and hung out playing catchphrase and other games!

Sunday::
Yesterday we worked for a few hours then packed our trailers and left Wisconsin. I was so sad to have to leave everyone. Luckily we are in the HQRover, which means that we will travel all over and hopefully get to see the other teams along the way!

We were lucky enough to stop at Mars Cheese Castle on our way out of Wisconsin. (I know you're all jealous) It looked like it was going to be cool- but do not be deceived... if you go to Wisconsin it is indeed not as neat as you think! It was just a gift shop with a fancy name. So that kicked off our first drive of the year! We drove all day Monday until we got to Louisville, Ky.





Then we woke this morning and are currently in the car driving to atl for the night!! Yay... I get to spend a night at home already!

I miss you all so much... but this is seriously such an amazing experience!

Matt and I are on our way to Daytona... we have 3 days to get there for the Budwieser Shootout!! It'll be exciting to get going on our first event!

chi town

Sorry, it's been a while since I have written on here but things got very busy very quickly!!

So I guess I will just try to hit the main parts from the last week...

We were in Chicago from Sunday till Thursday. Then we drove to Wisconsin Thursday night and stayed there until yesterday.

Monday::
Training all day (like I said in my last post) Then that night we went out to the Rush/Divison area in Chicago. We went to an irish pub then to a dance club for a fashion show. Unfortunately we left before the show started but it was so cool to see the models and the place where we were was really neat. Oh an I met my first transvestite on stilts… haha. wow.



Stilts... interesting.



Tuesday::
This was a GREAT day!! We kicked off tuesday with a scavenger hunt!! We had to find places all around the city like Buckingham Fountain, the Bean, 5 hotels, 5 schools, etc. And we had to use our new Verizon Wireless devices to take pictures and videos to send back to Marketing Werks. It was great to see a little more of Chicago outside of our hotel and the office.




Yes, it was cold… but not too terribly bad. I think the temperature today was a high of 20 degrees (apparently a huge improvement from last week)! Oh and my team totally rocked the scavenger hunt... we won Starbucks giftcards! It was Alison, Chad, Melissa and me.

Then the rest of the day was pretty good too. We had some phone training, Rhapsody training and we got to know our partners a little better.

Tuesday night was pretty low key. We went to eat at a place called Emerald Loop. It was delicious!


Wednesday::
This was a very long day... we had a trainer come from Verizon to teach us about all of the products and services. We thought that it would be a boring day but it was really informative and our trainer was very engaging!!

That night we went to play WhirleyBall with everyone, including the office people. It's really great that Marketing Werks is a very young company- everyone is in their twenties and early thirties. So had a blast together!!



If you don't know what WhirleyBall is... you are deprived and have not truly lived yet. WhirleyBall is what happens when bumper cars, basketball and lacrosse all get together and have an amazingly handsome baby... i'm talking cuter than Surie Cruise or Harlow Madden.

And... might I add that I killed at WhirleyBall... if it were an Olympic sport I would be on the team and USA would be Gold Medalist. Kirby, Travis and I basically are the dream threesome in this highly competitive and challenging sport.

Then after two hours of intense WhirleyBall madness we went to Howl at the Moon. Which was a really cool piano bar. We requested some pretty sweet jams... come on eileen...great balls of fire... and even single ladies. We all hung out and even made a stage appearance for single ladies :)

I was pretty tired so I called it a night but I wish I would have stayed out because 6 of the other people we were with got a ride in a paddy wagon to a diner!! My taxi ride back to the hotel just didn't compare to the awesomeness of convincing cops to take a group to a late night diner in the paddy wagon!! jealous.

Thursday::
This was another intense Verizon training day along with Motorola and BlackBerry Storm training.

Then we all packed into mini vans and headed to Wisconsin....

hard rockin' it

First day of training down… and a lot has happened!



When we got to Chicago yesterday we took a shuttle into the city to our hotel. It is AMAZING!! We are staying at the Hard Rock Hotel (very snazzy).



When we walked in the Hard Rock we were starving!! There were a few others here... so all 6 of us went to dinner at Giordano’s. We ordered a deep dish pizza with Canadian bacon and pepperoni (not normally my favorite but it was good and my first Chicago style pizza experience). We were SOOO full!

Then when we got back to the hotel there were 5 others sitting in the lobby. We all sat down and got to know each other. We talked and played Never Have I Ever (always a fun game). Of course it’s an awesome group that we are training with since we are all very outgoing and fun people!!

There are 7 teams total (14 people) that are training together. Some are going to the South Area, West Area, NorthEast Area and MidWest. Me and Matt definitely got the best tour since we are on the HQ Rover.

HQ Rover means that we will be going all over the country to various events, whereas the other teams will be in one area.

Shanley is my roommate here at the hotel. She has been interning in the Marketing Werks office and is now going on tour. She is from Wisconsin and her partner, Sean is from Michigan.

The other teams are:
Jamie (Iowa) & Chad (Blue Ridge)
Christi (LA) & Jared (Chicago)
Kirby (Chicago) & Travis (Texas)
Michelle (Chicago) & Allison (Chicago)
Melissa (Chicago/Miami) & Hector (Texas)

About 5 of the people here have already been on tour before so it’s nice to be able to get advice from them about places to go and things that are very helpful!

This is such an amazing adventure that I am about to embark on and I can’t hardly wait. Although I will miss everyone that we are training with but hopefully we will all meet up somewhere on the road!

flight to the windy city

I’m trying to be good about posting on here… so here is post #2! yay.

And so my adventure has begun… currently I am on my flight to Chicago!! Going through the airport today wasn’t a problem at all… no security stopping me- everything was smooth sailing. When I got to my gate I met up with two other guys who are working with Marketing Werks also, Chad and Matthew! Chad is from Blue Ridge and will be working on the Midwest team. Matt is my partner and had a connecting flight from Houston to Atlanta. So it was good to meet both of them and get to know each other a little.

They are both really friendly and easy to talk to. I can’t wait to get to Chicago to meet everyone else! I’m sure we’ll have a great group for training. And I think Matthew and I will have a great year together. It’s so crazy to think that we will be traveling and working together everyday for the next year (and also very excited at the same time)!


When I got on my plane I decided to do a little reading. Since I did not bring any magazines or books (I meant to bring Twilight but I forgot it on the table *insert sigh) I picked up the Airtran Magazine, Sky Mall. Basically it’s a catalog of absurd items that no one really ‘needs.’ As I am looking at the ridiculous items in this catalog I wonder who would actually buy this stuff… then I turned the page to find this amazing litter box…

Wow, amazing. Who would buy this (Buff- I think Roscoe would love it!)



And this Yetti sculpture… hiliarious!



Thank you to AirTran for some entertainment on my flight!

the first of many...

So, ladies and gentlemen... here is my first blog post!  It is almost 3 a.m. and I have nothing packed in my suitcase!  What can I say, I work well at the last minute and under pressure.  (The under pressure part will come tomorrow at around noon when my dad starts to worry if I will even make it to the airport on time and I am scrambling to get everything squeezed into my suitcase!)

I have been working hard today to get packed but there's a lot more that goes into all of this than just throwing a few outfits together... we're talking almost a whole year's worth of clothing.... yikes!  Plus I had to do some laundry and tidy up things so I don't leave my room a mess for my parents to look at for the next year.

... slowly, but surely it is coming together.  I really think at this point that I need to go to bed and get some rest so I can wake up and finish in the morning!

But first, I suppose I should fill everyone in on why I am starting this blog... I have a new job beginning on Monday!!  I am so excited about it!!  I will be working, or should I say 'werking' for a company called Marketing Werks, which is based in Chicago.  So tomorrow I fly to Chicago, Illinois for training and then I drive to New Berlin, Wisconsin for more training.  After training I will be doing promotions for Verizon Wireless all around the country for this whole year until November!!  (yes I know, total dream job)

I figured a blog would be the best way to stay in touch with my friends and family so everyone knows what's going on in my life!  

.... but for now I think it's time for me to call it a night, so to say goodnight I bid you ado with this song (thanks to Awad and Wyclef Jean).....

'See you must understand, I can't work a nine to five... so I'll be gone till November, said I'll be gone till November...

January, February, March, April, May.... I see you cryin' but girl I can't stay....'